'It's great to see people back' - at last, racing without the restrictions

Around 5,000 spectators at Cartmel on Monday made up the largest racecourse crowd since March 2020, outside of pilot events, on the day lockdown restrictions were eased across England.

Following a damaging 16 months when racing was initially shut down entirely before returning behind closed doors and then with a limit on crowds, the sport was able to breathe a collective sigh of relief at a significant step on the road back to normality.

The lifting of restrictions could not have come soon enough for racecourses and on-course bookmakers ravaged by the pandemic – and, of course, racegoers starved of live action.